In all kinds of relationships, people have conflict and disagreements and hurt one another's feelings. What determines the success of the relationship is the way people deal with conflict, the nature of their friendship and intimacy, and their shared meaning system.

A warm smile tends to beget a smile in return. Yet an effusive, over-the-top laugh and wide grin, for example, may cause an introvert or someone who has just gone through a trying time to back into their shell.

It's one thing to be a single mother by choice. It arrives with a positive narrative to tell your child. It's a whole other everything to have single motherhood thrust upon you -- because the father has unconscionably chosen to abandon his child.

It's not just the exposure of our partner's imperfections that we need all that patience to accept and live with, it's the exposure of our own imperfect aspects that get illuminated in reaction to them that leave us shame-faced and embarrassed.

Create situations in which everyone gets to use best talents, working on projects that reflect a strong sweet spot of shared interest. In so doing you may play a different character role in the story that unfolds and make the storyline more adventuresome and satisfying.

I'm talking about "worth" as in self-worth and "value," as in the degree to which we feel valued by others, and valuable in the world. Nothing more powerfully influences our behavior and our effectiveness at work.

There's a growing body of evidence that the small hits over time to your relationship can have a degenerative effect. Research is showing that tiny gestures can also help a marriage reap great rewards.